Wind turbines, solar generators, thermal solar, photovoltaic (sometimes “PV”) solar, chemical, electrolyzers, Haber/Bosch processes and thermal energy storage are known in prior art. Additionally, Stirling applications and processes, chiller, refrigeration, heating, cooling, air conditioning, water heating, distillation, water purification and desalination systems, pressure swing absorption as well as electrical regeneration using various types of fuel, chemical and thermal sources in various designs and configurations for providing energy generation to fulfill energy needs are known in prior art. However, the prior art systems and devices, including those above, have drawbacks, particularly when said systems are physically deployed, are generally not planned, or established and/or orchestrated to benefit from higher efficiency as sub-systems in an integrated system environment. Generally prior systems are planned for deployment with an efficiency basis as an independent device with subpar system design performance. Deployment of prior art requires higher part count, increased manufacturing costs, increased assembly costs, increased transportation costs, increased subpart count and more costly parts with larger custom parts inventory required. In addition, prior systems require overlapping and duplicated subsystems, frequent problematic maintenance and repair costs, rising levelized cost of energy and products production. These in turn cause higher operating expenses, grid energy connection issues and transfer line losses.
Prior art smartgrid designs primarily use smart meters on consumer connections to monitor usage. Improving upon prior art smartgrid implementations, the current invention is effectuated via monitoring usage, identifying the energy usage sources through device data transmissions, manual consumer input and from its common electrical signal fingerprint. The current invention further stores profile data sets, responds with appropriate energy assumptions from extracted usage profiles, analyzes time of day usage for enhanced energy load response and analyzes power quality and energy availability to enhance overall grid stability. The electronic monitoring, identification, energy generation, baseload energy load response and energy provisioning to satisfy grid stability from supply compensation for end use requirements and control element of the present invention in the current application shall henceforth be known and designated from the above as elements for the features and functionality as system to be known as “ULTRA GRID™”.
Cogeneration, or combined heat and power (“CHP”), is the use of a heat engine or localized power station to simultaneously generate electricity and useful heat. Trigeneration, or combined cooling, heat and power (“CCHP”), refers to the simultaneous generation of electricity and useful heating and cooling from the available processes and applications. A generation system producing electricity, heating and cooling is called a regeneration or polygeneration plant.
Cogeneration is a thermodynamically efficient use of fuel. In separate production of electricity, some energy must be discarded as waste heat, but in cogeneration this thermal energy is put to use. All thermal power plants emit heat during electricity generation, which can be released into the natural environment through cooling towers, flue gas or by other means.
In contrast, CHP captures some or all of the by-product heat for heating, either very close to the plant or as hot water or as water and glycol mixture for associated neighborhood radiated and/or district heating with temperatures ranging from approximately 80 to 180° C. (176-356° F.). This is also known as combined heat and power district heating “CHPDH”). Small CHP plants are an example of decentralized distributed energy. Readily available waste thermal energy at moderate temperatures (100-180° C., 212-356° F.) can also be used in absorption cooling processes with chillers and refrigerators for active cooling usage, radiated cooling applications and cold energy storage.
The supply of high-temperature thermal energy primarily would drive thermal intensive applications such as providing thermal energy input for a Stirling cycle engine or steam-powered generator and the resulting lower temperature thermal waste energy is then used for distillation, water or radiated space heating as described in cogeneration. Trigeneration differs from cogeneration in that the thermal waste energy is used for both heating and cooling, typically with an absorption chiller or refrigerator. CCHP systems can attain even higher overall efficiencies than cogeneration or traditional power plants. In the United States, the application of trigeneration in buildings is called building cooling, heating and power (“BCHP”). Heating and cooling output, whether direct or through passive radiated heating and cooling, may operate concurrently or alternately depending on need and system construction as well as quantity and quality of available waste energy.
Cogeneration was practiced in some of the earliest installations of electrical generation. Before central stations offered distributed power, industries generated their own energy using exhaust steam for process heating. Large office and apartment buildings, hotels and stores commonly generated their own power and used waste steam for building heat. Due to the high cost of early purchased power, these distributed CHP operations continued for many years even after utility electricity became available.
Micro CCHP, “Micro trigeneration” is often considered an ideal implementation of a distributed energy resource (“DER”). The installation is generally less than 5 kWe in house, small business and/or light commercial application. Instead of burning fuel or using an energy capture system to merely heat and cool space or water, some of the energy is converted to electricity in addition to direct heating, cooling or passive radiated heat and cooling. This electricity can be used within the home or business or, if permitted, by the grid management, sold back into the electric power grid. This development of small scale CCHP systems has provided the opportunity for in-house energy generation defaulting to using grid energy as the backup source as a last resort only if storage reserves are depleted.
A microgrid is a localized grouping of electricity generation, energy storage and loads that normally operate connected to a traditional centralized grid (macrogrid). This single point of common coupling with the macrogrid can be disconnected. The microgrid can then function autonomously. Generation and loads in a microgrid are usually interconnected at low voltage. From the point of view of the grid operator, a connected microgrid can be controlled as if it were one entity. Microgrid generation resources can include fuel cells, wind, solar or other energy sources. The multiple dispersed generation sources and ability to isolate the microgrid from a larger network would provide highly reliable electric power. Produced heat from generation sources such as Stirling cycle engines could be used for local direct process heating and cooling or passive radiated space heating and cooling, allowing flexible interchange between the needs and available methods to provide heating, cooling and electric power.
A Stirling cycle thermal engine is manufactured from metal and/or similar characteristic materials. The Stirling cycle thermal engine has a compression side also known as a compression side cylinder with a power piston for compression which uses liquid cooling ports around the vessel and a displacer side also known as a hot side vessel which has a connected heat source and contains a regenerator area and a displacer with a piston. Thermal differential is the basis for Stirling cycle energy generation. Prior art systems and processes use air cooling or a common heat distribution system type of water cooling with ambient air with a fan to radiate heat away from the compression side of the system.
The Stirling cycle thermal engine is an alternate engine design to the internal combustion engine, steam turbine and gas turbine. Multiple designs for Stirling heat engines have been developed and are well-documented in prior art. Despite the Stirling cycle thermal engine Carnot potential for greater thermodynamic efficiency compared to internal combustion engines, Stirling cycle thermal engines have only been used very infrequently and in highly limited applications in the past. This is due to several factors that occurred often during the primary research years, such as the lack of specialized manufacturing capacity, lack of special metals and alloys, complexity of the designs, cheap disposable energy input, type of available energy of internal combustion versus Stirling cycle thermal engine when used for transportation, the hulk weight of the engine per energy unit of torque rotational energy output and the past difficulty with starting a thermal engine as well.
The ideal Stirling cycle includes the following three thermodynamic processes acting on the working fluid; 1) Isothermal Expansion—the expansion-space and associated heat exchanger are maintained at a constant high thermal temperature and the gas undergoes near-isothermal expansion absorbing heat front the hot source; 2) Constant-Volume (known as isovolumetric or isochoric) heat-removal—the gas is passed through the regenerator, where it cools, transferring thermal energy to the regenerator for use in the next cycle; and 3) Isothermal Compression—the compression space and associated heat exchanger are maintained at a constant low thermal temperature so the gas undergoes near-isothermal compression rejecting heat to the cold sink. The theoretical thermal efficiency equals that of the hypothetical Carnot cycle—i.e. the highest efficiency attainable by any heat engine.
Alpha, Beta and Gamma Stirling engines are well known in the art. A Gamma Stirling engine is simply a Beta Stirling engine in which the power piston is mounted in a separate cylinder alongside the displacer piston cylinder. However, it is still connected to the same flywheel and crankshaft. The gas in the two cylinders can flow freely between same and remains a single body. This configuration generally produces a low compression ratio but is mechanically simpler and often used in multi-cylinder Stirling engines.
Gamma type engines have a displacer and power piston, similar to Beta machines, however in different cylinders. This allows a convenient complete separation between the heat exchangers associated with the displacer cylinder and the compression and expansion work space associated with the piston. Thus they tend to have somewhat larger dead volume area than either the Alpha or Beta engines. In a multi-cylinder Stirling cycle engine, the cylinders are disposed in rows, the cylinders in one row being staggered with respect to the cylinders in the other row and the longitudinal axis of the cylinders in the first row being disposed at an angle to the longitudinal axis of the cylinders in the other row.
Wind energy technology is typically used to convert kinetic energy from wind into mechanical energy and/or electricity. To extract wind power, a wind turbine may include a rotor with a set of blades and a rotor shaft connected to the blades. Wind passing over the rotor connected blades may cause the blades to turn and the rotor shaft to rotate. In addition, the rotating rotor shaft may be coupled to a mechanical system that performs a mechanical task such as pumping water, atmosphere gas separation compressors, etc. Alternatively, the rotor shaft may be connected to an electric generator that converts the rotational energy into electricity; which may subsequently be used to power a consumer, commercial, industrial device and/or electrical grid.
Solar energy technology is typically used to convert radiated light energy from the sun into thermal energy and/or photovoltaic electricity. To extract solar power, a collection surface and/or reflector (as is the case with thermal solar technologies to concentrate the solar energies on the aforementioned solar collector surface) is used such that solar energy striking the collection surface is converted into photovoltaic generated electrical, energy or as thermal generated heat for direct use, transfer and/or storage. However, the variable nature of wind and availability of solar energy may interfere with baseload and/or on-demand generation of electricity, generated products and byproducts from wind and solar energy. For example energy storage using chemical and thermal techniques may be required to offset fluctuations in electricity, products and byproducts generated from wind and solar power and/or maintain reliable electric/thermal energy provisioning service and/or in a private and public electrical grid.
Electrolyzer technology is typically used to convert electrical energy using electrodes placed in water based conductive mixture to separate the hydrogen and oxygen. The process uses an electrolyte additive to enhance conductivity. To separate water into separate parts, a pair of electrodes, an anode and cathode are given a corresponding positive and negative voltage to disassociate the hydrogen and oxygen, the separated gases are then moved to storage or onward for further processing of additional products. Haber-Bosch is the technology for production of ammonia. Previously stored hydrogen is catalytically reacted with nitrogen (derived from process air—pressure swing absorption) with adequate pressure and thermal input in a pressure vessel to form synthesized anhydrous liquid ammonia. This step is known as the ammonia synthesis loop (also referred to as the Haber-Bosch process): 3H2+N2=2NH3. Prior art Haber/Bosch ammonia synthesis plants used the heat generated for use in synthesis of the hydrogen and nitrogen gases, which are combined then cooled using cooling towers, to cool the ammonia creating massive amounts of usable heat energy. Prior an used additional energy to remove the heat to cool the ammonia for storage further propagating efficiency losses and elevating product costs.
Pressure Swing Absorption (sometimes “PSA”) is a technology used to separate a specific gas from a mixture of gases under pressure according to molecular characteristics using gas product specific filters and sieves. Atmosphere gas collection, pressurization separation is typically used to extract particular gases of interest such as Nitrogen, Oxygen and provide the gas feedstock supply for inert gas separation in future steps. Atmospheric inert feedstock gases for gas separation typically uses thermal distillation processes to extract individual gases of interest such as Argon, Helium, Xenon and other commonly known atmospheric gases. Gasses with particular gas specific, gas extraction sections are of interest for various applications and can be transported and processed to gas states and reprocessed into a liquid state for an appropriate type of storage system.
The current prior art also known as direct solar thermal energy generation technologies have the following disadvantages:                1. Large space requirement or limited reflector surface-to-ground surface ratio. This is typical for systems that are designed to minimize the overlapping-shadowing effect (blocking off either the incident or reflected sunlight) of adjacent reflectors. The distance between the reflector panel rows and their orientation may be optimized for a specific position of the sun on the sky that occurs only once (twice for equinox) a year. In order to make the highest use of the reflector panel surfaces, the rows are spaced with considerable gaps between them. This way the extent of the field required for a given thermal output becomes large. Large field then results in extensive and costly piping and other service infrastructures.        2. Limited, reflected energy per unit of linear length of the mirror. This is typical for systems that are designed to minimize the area of reflector field. In this case the reflector rows are often spaced evenly, close to each other. These systems have low reflector area utilization because the above described blocking-shadowing effect.        3. Limited seasonal energy. This is typical for all known systems, including the floating, rotating “Solar-Island” concept. This disadvantage comes from the fixed position of the reflectors in relation to the collectors. This anchored position of the mirrors, even if it is optimized, is ideal, only for a single hour of the year. However, for the rest of the year, the mirrors would require a different optimized distribution between the collectors.        4. Reduced collector and/or absorber efficiency. The known collector systems either have high heat losses or poor radiation, capturing efficiency. Heat losses are caused by the high surface temperature and high incident radiation flux. The root cause of inefficient collection and/or absorber efficiency is the inaccuracy of focusing mirrors over relatively large distances to the absorber. For instance the active absorber surface of the collector and/or absorber must be limited (to an optimal value). Additionally, the reflector panel distance to the closest collector receiving the reflected radiation needs to stay small to be able to capture the optimal energy of available sunlight.        5. Limited hydraulic stability, poor turndown ratio and insufficient controllability of the working fluid loop systems. As a consequence of horizontal absorber-tubing, extending over large areas and distances, prior art systems have very large pressure losses, ineffective control over the stability of heat transfer and the quality of steam. They have limited or no freeze protection, and are prone to high velocity fluid-hammer.        6. High cost and complexity of construction. While the LFR technologies in general and the Compact LFR in particular, is the simplest and most cost effective compared to other technologies, its installation cost is still considerable and leaves room for significant improvements.        
Thermal energy storage (“TES”) can be provisioned via thermal energy transfer fluids in high temperatures and/or medium temperatures generated from solar thermal, electrical and/or chemical reaction collector systems and/or from conversion in cooling systems such as single and multiple effect cooling, chillers and refrigeration systems for transference into cold temperature thermal energy storage. Additionally thermal energy can be generated via transference from a heating and/or cooling element or other derived application processes to initiate thermal conveyance to a medium, additionally as a method for electrical energy to thermal energy storage technique. Thermal energy on demand is made available from TES systems pumping thermal transfer fluids for direct use as a thermal energy production of a service, i.e. providing thermal energy for a space heating, water heater or other thermal intensive application(s). This process can be conducted via (1) fluid to thermal transfer device such as a Stirling engine and/or steam turbine; (2) thermal intensive applications usage; and/or (3) through a secondary thermal transfer liquid for storage and reuse of waste thermal energy.
Grid Backup Energy Reserve, also called grid-scale energy storage, refers to the methods used to store energy on a consumer grid scale within a consumer's energy power grid. Energy is stored during times when production from energy generation components exceeds localized energy consumption and the stores are used at times when consumption exceeds available baseload production or establishes a higher baseline energy requirement. In this way, energy production need not be drastically scaled up and down to meet momentary consumption requirements; production levels are maintained at a more consistently stable level with improved energy quality. This has the advantage that energy storage based power plants and/or thermal energy can be efficiently and easily operated at constant production levels.
In particular, the use of grid-connected intermittent energy sources such as photovoltaic solar and thermal solar as well as wind turbines can benefit from grid energy thermal storage. Energy derived from solar and wind sources are inherently variable by nature, meaning the amount of electrical energy produced varies with time, day of the week, season and random environmental factors that occur in the variability of the weather. In electrical power grid and/or thermal intensive systems with energy storage, energy sources that rely on energy generated from wind and solar must have matched grid scale energy storage regeneration to be scaled up and down to match the rise and fall of energy production from intermittent energy sources. Thus, grid energy storage is a method that the consumer can use to adapt localized energy production to respond with on demand localized energy consumption, both of which can vary overtime. This is done to increase efficiency and lower the cost of energy production and/or to integrate and facilitate the use of intermittent energy sources.
Thermal energy storage most commonly uses a molten salt mixture as a high temperature transfer and storage medium which is used to store heat collected by a solar collection system or by electrical generated thermal storage injection. Stored energy can be used to generate electricity or provide thermal energy to applications and processes during inadequate energy generation availability or during extreme weather events. Thermal efficiencies over one year of 99% have been predicted. TES systems have shown that the electricity-in for storage to electricity-out (round trip) efficiency is in the range of 75 to 93% using enhanced energy recovery systems.
Therefore, the creation of a mechanism for mitigating variability and/or intermittency associated with the stable quality power production of energy consisting primarily of energy from wind, photovoltaic solar, thermal solar and other renewable energy sources is needed. Additionally, there is an absence of adequate solar energy generation from thermal solar collection with the purpose of thermal energy availability.